Mossworld is a multiplayer world, and half the fun is the people in it. This page covers every way to talk, the channels you can join, the browser's chat mode, and how to customise your character and the colours of your screen.

• say message — speak out loud to everyone in your room.
• tell player message — a private message to one person, anywhere in the world.
• shout message — shout to everyone in your whole zone (your area, not just the room).
• emote name — act something out: emote wave shows “yourname waves.” Type emote by itself for the full list. (Short forms: me, em.)
• who — see who is online right now.

Channels are named, opt-in chat rooms (general, and more as the world grows).

• channels — list the channels available, and which you've joined.
• join name — start listening to a channel.
• leave name — stop listening to one.

You talk on a channel by its number: 1 Hello everyone! sends to your channel 1. The numbers are yours — they count upward over the channels you have joined, in your order, so two people may number the same channel differently. Messages you hear are tagged with your number for that channel, so you always know which one to reply on:

[2. general] Rowan: anyone near the fountain?

• ch # # — reorder your channels (swap two numbers).

(In chat mode, prefix a channel number with / — “/1 Hello” — see below.)

There is always a built-in Party channel: join Party and it becomes one of your numbers like any other. It is silent unless you're in a party — then it reaches only your party-mates (see Parties).

Team up to take on tougher fights, share the experience, and split the loot — up to four adventurers, with a built-in Party chat channel. The full guide — every party command, how coins and drops are shared, following the leader, and more — has its own page: Parties.

The browser client has two input modes:

• Command mode — you type game commands the usual way (look, north, say hi).
• Chat mode — plain text is sent straight to whoever you last spoke to: your last say, tell who, or channel. So you can just chat without typing say every time.

Flip between them with Tab or Esc at any time, or with the /chat and /command commands. In chat mode, a line that begins with / still runs a single command — “/look” looks around, “/1 Hi” talks on channel 1 — then you're back to chatting.

• set desc text — a short line others read when they look at you. Type set desc with no text to see your current one.
• setup gender male | female | other | none — set how your character presents (none leaves it blank).
• setup cz sign — set your Chinese-zodiac birth sign, shown on your stat sheet. The twelve: Rat, Cow, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

(Your profession, race and alignment are chosen when you first make your character — see How to Play and Classes.)

Set these with the set command; they're saved to your character.

• set verbose on / off — show or hide tutorial and assist hints (off by default).
• set armor modern / traditional — how armour reads on your score sheet (a plain bonus, or classic descending armour class).
• set brief on / off / more — control how much room text you see as you move.
  • off (the default) shows everything.
  • on hides room descriptions while you move; you still see the room's name and who's there, and an explicit look always shows the full description.
  • more is an even briefer display: it prefers the short alternate names and descriptions builders have written (handy over a screen reader). Where none exist, the normal text is shown.
  • While in more, use ll (or look2) on a room, item, mob or player to see its full original name and description that one time.

A plain brief toggles between off and on; brief on / brief off / brief more set a mode directly.

• set descb text / set nameb text — your own short alternate description and name, shown to anyone viewing you in brief more. Type either with no text to see your current one.
• (Builders:) give any room, item or mob its short forms with the data field: room data descb text, room data nameb text, item ref data descb text, mob ref data nameb text, and so on. Players in brief more then see those instead of the full name/description.
• set autoexits on / off — when on, the exits list is shown automatically after every room (the same as typing exits), so you always see which ways lead out. (Off by default.)
• prompt simple / combat / none — your input prompt: plain, with hit points and movement, or hidden.
• set echo off / on — (browser only) whether the client echoes each command back as a > … line. Turn it off to quiet the display.
• alias name commands — make a shortcut. Chain steps with ; — “alias gb get all;buy bread”. Type alias to list yours, and unalias name to remove one.

Recolour the game's text with setcolor. Colours apply in the browser and over telnet, and are saved to your character.

A colour can be a name (yellow, orchid, cyan — any CSS colour name, plus tangoplum and medicalplum), a hex code (#ad7fa8), or three numbers r,g,b (173,127,168).

• setcolor — list every category you can colour, and its current colour.
• setcolor category colour — recolour a category (e.g. “setcolor roomname yellow”).
• setcolor category off — return a category to its default.
• setcolor list — print your whole scheme as /setcolor lines you can copy, paste, or share with a friend.
• setcolor save name — save your current scheme under a name, to switch back to later.
• setcolor load name — restore a scheme you saved. setcolor save (or load) with no name lists the schemes you've saved.

Categories cover the room title and description, other players, creatures, items, system messages, say, channel chat, shout, private tells, combat, help, and more — setcolor with no arguments shows the full list with each one's current colour.

• How to Play — moving, looking, fighting, and the basics
• Classes — the four professions
• In-game: help, and help topics